Sunday, February 4, 2007

VEGAN ALL-AMERICAN "BUTTERMILK" PANCAKE MIX

I devised this mix a couple of years ago for my [now defunct] subscriber newsletter, The Vegan Feast, and I wanted a healthful vegan mix that produced a light, fluffy, white pancake (it's full of whole grains, but it looks white!). I also wanted it to have very few additions, so that it was really quick and easy. You only have to add water and a little lemon juice to this mix, and it produces pancakes you can be proud to serve to children, picky eaters, omnis, anybody!

I make double, sometimes even triple, the recipe most of the time, to have it on hand for company breakfasts, or mornings like today, when we want a quick treat. So here's a little gift for you:

These can be mixed up in a minute and taste almost like the white kind, but have plenty of fiber and grains in them! I looked at the labels of pancake mixes and found that many of them contain rice flour and corn flour, so I added them (whole grain, though, of course!) and found they did improve the finished product!NOTE: To make the mix with ALL wholegrain flour, the only change you have to make is to use 3 cups whole wheat pastry flour (white whole wheat pastry flour would be good!) plus 1 cup oat flour (rolled oats ground in a DRY blender or coffee/spice mill) in place of the 2 cups unbleached white flour and 2 cups wholewheat pastry flour in the mix recipe. The rest of the recipe is the same.

TO MAKE THE MIX:
Ideally, mix the ingredients together in a dry food processor. If you don't have one, whisk the dry ingredients together well in a bowl, then rub in the oil with your fingers. Keep in a tight jar, refrigerated, unless you use it up fast. STIR BEFORE MEASURING OUT.

Place mix in a medium bowl. Dump the lemon juice and water into the dry ingredients and whisk briefly just until no dry flour is visible-- it will be lumpy and quite thick.

Let stand while you heat up your pancake griddle or skillet-- seasoned cast iron or carbon steel is good. Drops of water should sizzle when sprinkled on the surface of the pan if it's hot enough. Turn the heat down to medium.

Spoon heaping tablespoonfuls of the batter onto the hot, oiled griddle and spread it out gently to a 3" circle with the back of the spoon. (I used a tiny ladle that holds 1 1/2 Tbs. batter and that's perfect. If you want larger pancakes, use a ladle that hold 3 Tbs. batter; the yield will be about 9 pancakes.) Cook until it has puffed a bit, bubbles appear in the surface and the bottoms are golden-brown.

Carefully loosen with a spatula (if using a silicone spatula, make sure that it has a nice thin edge on it) and turn over gently. The center will rise a bit and be firm, and the other side golden when done. Don't overcook, or they fall and are heavy.

**CORN FLOUR: As a thickener, corn flour creates a pale yellow "buttery" or "eggy" color in the finished product that is much more appetizing than turmeric (which tends to have a greenish cast and, therefore, looks phony).

It also contributes a "buttery" flavor or even an "eggy" flavor. It blends to a creamy smooth texture after it's cooked in liquid and then blended with more liquid. Adding a tiny bit of vegan butter gives it an even more buttery taste with very few calories in the finished product, but, in most cases it is not even necessary.

You can create soy-free vegan sauces and spreads, if that is a concern to you, and smooth, creamy products without the expense of silken tofu. Corn flour mixtures cook well in the microwave.

Corn flour is not the same as cornstarch (confusingly, what we call "cornstarch" in North America is referred to as "corn flour" in the UK)- it's very finely-ground yellow cornmeal. Nor is it the same as "masa harina", the corn flour used for making tortillas, which is treated with lime. It is available in the Asian or Indian section of many large supermarkets supermarkets (SaveOn and SuperStore here in BC, Canada), but also look for it in Indian markets and health food stores, which have organic brands.)

Basically, use half again as much corn flour as cornstarch, if converting a recipe.

NOTE: IF YOU CAN'T FIND CORN FLOUR, if you prefer to use organic products and can't find the organic kind, grind the finest yellow cornmeal you can find in a clean coffee/spice mill until it is powdery (this is important), or grind yellow cornmeal on the finest setting of your electric grain mill (I had to run it through mine twice).

Mustardseed, did you use soymilk for the liquid? I always find pancakes gummy when I use soymilk.

You CAN make the mix with all wholegrain flour.

The only change you have to make is to use 3 cups wholewheat pastry flour plus 1 cup oat flour (rolled oats ground in a DRY blender or coffee/spice mill) in place of the 2 cups unbleached white flour and 2 cups wholewheat pastry flour in the mix recipe.

I always used to enjoy scarfing down hot, fluffy, eggy, bright yellow pancakes straight from the pan, drowned in maple syrup. The ultimate comfort food at any time of the day. Just wondering, chickpea flour does have a light flavour of its own, does this interfere with the flavour of the pancakes? And can I make this with just white flour, because it's hard for me to find wholewheat pastry flour?

Vidya, I would suggest using regular wholewheat flour instead of the unbleached white flour, and then use white cake or pastry flour instead of the wholewheat pastry flour, You need half of it to be a pastry flour in order to have those fluffy pancakes!

I just made these and they are actually amazing. I'm vegetarian so I do eat eggs occasionally but generally avoid them because they gross me out, I had a bite of a regular pancake on the weekend though and I was suddenly reminded of how fantastic pancakes are. I got home and made these and they are the CLOSEST to the real thing I have ever had, I made them without flax seed because I didn't have any but the corn flour, chickpea flour, rice flour, everything combined, they were soft and slightly buttery and eggy, even though they were completely vegan. Love them, definitely keeping a huge tin on hand at all times. Does the flax seed do anything chemically, or is it there for the health benefits?

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